Presidential Election/2016 Transcript
Transcript Text reads: The Mysteries of Life with Tim and Moby Rita and her four robot assistants walk up to the front door of a house. Rita rings the doorbell, and robot, Moby comes to the door. RITA: It's Saturday! Are you ready to make this happen? MOBY: Beep. Moby looks confused. RITA: Uh, your campaign to be President of the United States? Moby does not understand what Rita is saying. RITA: Remember? Like we talked about at the pool? Three days ago? I was going to be your campaign manager? Rita's assistant robots barge past Moby into the house. Rita reads from a typed letter. RITA: Dear Rita and Moby, How does our country pick its president? From, Sasha O. Well, Sasha. MOBY: Beep. Moby hands Rita a T-shirt reading: Vote. Rita puts it on. It is far too large for her. RITA: As I was saying, United States presidential elections happen every four years. And to be honest, we're a little late to the game. Moby and Rita enter the house, where the assistant robots have set up a campaign headquarters. A poster on the wall reads: Elect Moby. There are several television screens on the walls, tuned to political news. A banner reads: Make America Beep Again. RITA: It's September, so America's two major political parties have a huge head start. A poster on the wall displays the symbols for the Democratic Party, a donkey, and the Republican Party, an elephant. RITA: They've already picked nominees, their official choices to run for president. An animation shows two well-dressed nominees, a donkey and an elephant, standing behind podiums on a stage, looking at each other. RITA: The Democrats are the more liberal, or left-leaning, party. They believe government has an obligation to take care of its citizens. Money from taxes should be used to pay for basic services and financial security. Things like healthcare, public education, and retirement funds. An animation shows tax dollars going into a funnel labeled: U.S. Federal Government. Images emerge from the small end of the funnel representing the types of spending Rita describes. RITA: The Republicans take a more conservative, or right-leaning, stance. They believe in lowering taxes and shrinking government programs. A U.S. Treasury check appears above the funnel. The check is labeled: Tax Refund. The images representing healthcare, public education, and retirement funds get somewhat smaller as the check grows larger. RITA: People will have more money to spend, helping businesses grow and create jobs. An animation shows a chart representing a growing economy. MOBY: Beep. RITA: Actually, boss, we've got a lot of catching up to do. Come on, let's walk and talk. Rita and Moby walk together through the campaign headquarters. They pass images of the major party candidates as they walk. RITA: Voters are already familiar with the Republican and Democratic nominees. They won their party's support in state-by-state elections: primaries and caucuses. Traveling the country for months, they debated how to refine their parties' core beliefs. An animation shows a video game of several Republicans riding elephants, racing one another past signs designating individual state primaries. RITA: They each shared their specific views on vital issues. The candidate whose ideas appealed most to voters won the party's nomination. One Republican candidate pulls ahead of the others. The screen splits, and on the other side, a Democratic candidate riding a donkey pulls ahead of her competitors. Text above the Republican candidate reads: A winner is Trump. Text above the Democratic candidate reads: A winner is Hillary. MOBY: Beep. RITA: That's the party's selection for president. The choice is officially announced at national meetings called nominating conventions. Party members gather to celebrate and drum up support for their nominee. It's a giant bash to kick off the general election, when the candidates from each party finally go head to head. An animation shows a television on the wall with images from both the Republican and Democratic conventions. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are seen speaking at their own podiums in separate conventions. MOBY: Beep. RITA: Nope, you'll join the race as an independent, or third-party, candidate. Animations show the faces of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Moby's face appears beneath them. Both major candidates look annoyed at his arrival. RITA: You'll be a hit with voters who aren't satisfied with either major party. But you need to collect about a million signatures to qualify. MOBY: Beep. Moby writes his name on a sheet of paper and shows it to Rita. RITA: Okay. We'll tackle that later. Follow me, and I'll fill you in on fundraising. Rita and Moby walk into another room, where Rita's assistant robots are eating Chinese food and making phone calls. The walls are plastered with campaign material for Moby. RITA: Volunteers like these help bring in donations from all over the country. Money is kind of the cornerstone of any presidential campaign. It costs hundreds of millions of dollars to travel, buy ads, and pay campaign workers. Animations show currency, a private jet, and Moby shaking hands with a farmer in a TV ad. RITA: Not to mention high-profile rallies to inspire voters. An animation shows several small robots holding signs that read: Bots mean business. RITA: Speaking of, I've got you booked for barbeque suppers across Texas, and yoga meet-ups all along the coast of California. Rita points to different regions on a United States map as she speaks. MOBY: Beep. Moby looks concerned and points to Rhode Island on the map. RITA: Rhode Island is nice, but it's too small for us to spend much time in. The higher a state's population, the more electoral votes it gets. The map changes to indicate the number of electoral votes each state has. RITA: There are 538 in total. Text on the screen reads: 538. RITA: The candidate who can get a majority of those, 270, wins the election. A pie chart is divided into two sections. One has 270 votes and the other has 268 votes. MOBY: Beep. RITA: Well, on Election Day, each state counts up its residents' votes. Whichever candidate gets the majority wins all of that state's electoral votes. An animated map illustrates the process Rita describes. It shows the 2012 race between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. RITA: This process is known as the Electoral College. It's a majority-rule system, but only within individual states. An animation illustrates the results of that election. Obama's winning total of 332 electoral votes is circled. Romney lost with 206 electoral votes. MOBY: Beep. RITA: Yeah, you'd think whoever wins the majority of votes across the country becomes president. But it's possible to win the popular vote and lose the electoral vote. It happened to Al Gore in the 2000 election, which is why he lost. An animation illustrates the results of the 2000 election. Gore had 266 electoral votes and George Bush had 271 electoral votes. MOBY: Beep. RITA: States tend to stick with one party or the other for a while. A Democratic candidate can usually count on winning these solid blue states. Rita clicks a remote control at a wall map, and several of the states turn blue. RITA: And Republicans can count on the red states. She clicks the remote control again, and several of the remaining states turn red. RITA: Swing states are the real battlegrounds of a campaign. She clicks the remote control a third time. The red and blue states lose their color, and the swing states turn purple. RITA: They swing back and forth between parties from election to election. The swing states switch colors back-and-forth to illustrate Rita's explanation. RITA: So, their electoral votes tend to swing elections one way or the other. MOBY: Beep. Moby waves two college banners, one in each hand. One banner is for Florida State, and the other is for Ohio State. MOBY: Beep. RITA: There are better ways than that to attract swing state voters. Like selecting the right running mate, the vice president on your ticket. MOBY: Beep. RITA: That could mean picking someone from another region of the country, or someone with a different ethnic background or gender. Or with more experience in certain areas of government. Animations show a robot dressed as a cowboy, a female robot, and a robot dressed as a soldier. RITA: These types of VPs boost the overall appeal of a ticket and pull in more votes. MOBY: Beep. RITA: Running mates aren't the only way candidates try to sway undecided voters. Public debates allow them to square off face to face. Topics like the economy and foreign policy usually take center stage. An animation shows robots watching a presidential debate on television. Images symbolize various topics of discussion. RITA: But, things can get ugly if candidates resort to personal insults and attack ads. That kind of mudslinging can be way exhausting for 15 weeks. The two debating candidates each grab a handful of mud from a bucket and fling it at each other's faces. RITA: That's about how long it is between party conventions and Election Day. The two mud-covered candidates point fingers at each other as they talk simultaneously. MOBY: Beep. RITA: It falls on the first Tuesday in November, as long as it's not November 1st. An animation shows a November calendar page. A red pen circles Tuesday, November 8th. RITA: Votes are counted up from polling stations across the nation, and the winner is usually announced around midnight. An animated montage shows different people voting by casting ballots, pulling levers, and making selections on a touch screen. RITA: Then, on January 20th, Inauguration Day, they officially take office. An animation shows Moby being sworn in as president. MOBY: Beep. RITA: First we need to make sure you meet some basic requirements. Rita holds a pen and consults a clipboard as she continues. RITA: You have to be at least 35. MOBY: Beep. Moby smiles as Rita writes on the clipboard. RITA: One-thousand-six-hundred. She trails off for a moment, then continues writing. RITA: Alright. Glad there's no maximum age. And you have to be a U.S. citizen, born in the United States. Moby looks distressed. RITA: But that's not a problem. MOBY: Beep. RITA: Wait, where?! How do you even spell that?! Rita speaks into her cell phone. RITA: We've got a problem, boys. Shut it down. Shut it down, now. The robots in the campaign center stop their work, turn everything off, and leave the room. They trash everything as they leave. Tim walks into the messy room. He becomes angry. TIM: '''MOBY! '''I step out for ten minutes, and this is what you do to my house? This is the last time I… He is interrupted by Rita's voice as she enters the room. RITA: So, you need to organize all the opposition research we have for most to least reason. And once that's done, get me bob the Lab Rats number. Rita walks past Tim. One of her assistant robots is next to her, listening to her as she speaks. Tim smiles. TIM: Oh. Hey, Rita. Rita does not notice Tim. He puts on a Moby campaign hat and sheepishly follows her as she walks away. TIM: I, um, I like what you've done with my living room. The door closes as Rita exits. Tim turns, and Moby is standing next to him. Both of them look sad. A television falls loudly from the wall behind them. Category:BrainPOP Transcripts